Malevolence in Path of Exile 2: What Does It Mean?
Malevolence is a powerful aura skill in Path of Exile 2 that enhances the abilities of characters focusing on damage over time and chaos damage. This skill plays a crucial role in many builds, particularly those that rely on sustained damage rather than burst damage.
Skill Mechanics
When activated, Malevolence provides significant boosts to damage over time and skill effect duration. This makes it an essential aura for characters utilizing skills such as Poison, Ignite, or Bleed, as well as chaos-based skills.
- Damage Over Time Multiplier: Malevolence increases the damage dealt by ongoing effects, making it ideal for skills that apply sustained damage.
- Increased Skill Effect Duration: The aura extends the duration of effects, allowing damage over time skills to affect enemies for longer periods.
Build Synergies
Malevolence is commonly used in builds that focus on maximizing damage over time effects. Here are some popular build synergies:
- Chaos Damage Builds: Characters that utilize chaos skills, such as Contagion or Essence Drain, benefit greatly from Malevolence's bonuses.
- Poison Builds: Assassins and other classes that inflict poison can leverage Malevolence to increase their poison damage significantly.
- Ignite Builds: Fire-based characters that rely on Ignite will find Malevolence useful for enhancing their burn damage.
Strategic Considerations
Integrating Malevolence into your build requires careful consideration of your available mana pool, as auras reserve a portion of your mana. Here are some strategies to efficiently use Malevolence:
- Mana Reservation: Utilize items or passive skills that reduce mana reservation to maintain sufficient mana for other skills.
- Complementary Auras: Pair Malevolence with other auras that benefit your build, such as Purity of Elements for elemental resistances or Grace for evasion.
- Aura Management: Use skills like Blood Magic to manage the mana cost efficiently.
Malevolence is a cornerstone aura for any character looking to maximize the effectiveness of their damage over time skills in Path of Exile 2. Properly integrating this skill into your build can significantly enhance your character's potency in dealing with enemies over time.